Padraic, sadly I also find it very hard to warm to the first two Soft Machine albums, I simply can't stand Robert Wyatt's flat weezy vocals, even though all the playing is top notch. I think I much prefer the album `Fifth' onwards, so I must warm more to the fusion side of S.Machine.

But there's endless other knockout Caterbury bands we can talk more highly about, no doubt!

Even though I don't like the (ooh, controversy here!) `schoolboy choir' vocals from the girls in some occasional moments on the first `Hatfield' album, that album is endlessly inventive and colourful, goes in so many directions! It's taken me so long to get my head around it, but these days I even have an `emergency' CD of it always in the glovebox of my car should I need a quick `hit'!

That said, a highly recommended live album is "Playtime", when National Health finally got to do a mini-tour of the US, but after Stewart decided to leave. So Alan Gowen agreed to join Greaves, Miller, and Pyle and the result is spectacular. Every NH fan should pick this up.

I've been listening to Gong like heroine. I even got the Daevid Allen book about his time in the band. Extremely entertaining if you like their music. He really explains a lot about where all their crazy concepts in the Radio Gnome albums come from and how they (somewhat) fit together.

Same here !!!!!!!!! Something about his sound and technique - his solos are out of this world and his choice of notes is bang-on. We have Dave Sinclair, Mike Ratledge and Robert Jan Stips who also fuzz-box their organs (ahem ) but Stewart is a master. Space Shanty is possibly the best ever album I've heard. I actually wish we'd get more of that fuzzy organ in today's modern Prog.

Gotta love the Hopper/Gowen project 'Two Rainbows Daily'. Pure bliss. I could go on for hours about Canterbury...............

I must shamefully admit I just don't like the first two Soft Machine albums.

No need to be ashamed, I don't like the first one either.

I do like the second one, though.

Padraic wrote:

a highly recommended live album is "Playtime", when National Health finally got to do a mini-tour of the US, but after Stewart decided to leave. So Alan Gowen agreed to join Greaves, Miller, and Pyle and the result is spectacular. Every NH fan should pick this up.

I'm a NH fan, I really like the three studio albums, but I haven't heard Playtime.

Love Caravan, National Health, Picchio dal Pozzo's first, some Robert Wyatt......don't really care much for the Soft Machine, Gong or Hatfield and the North I've heard. I find the cutesy, oddball goofiness and jazz levels need to be just right for me to enjoy the style.

A strange little sub-genre that I need to re-visit and explore further, especially some of the lesser bands.

Padraic, sadly I also find it very hard to warm to the first two Soft Machine albums, I simply can't stand Robert Wyatt's flat weezy vocals, even though all the playing is top notch. I think I much prefer the album `Fifth' onwards, so I must warm more to the fusion side of S.Machine.

But there's endless other knockout Caterbury bands we can talk more highly about, no doubt!

If I may suggest, the way to appreciate Robert Wyatt, is by stopping to expect "music" in any of its forms and designs, and it is done on purpose ... and it has been so since the famous ABC that he dropped on a live concert! It was his big number 1 finger to the commerciality and locking down of music and its concepts!

If you don't like that individuality and ability that so many of the Canterbury folks play and enjoy goofing around with ... then, you are not a "Canterbury" fan, but an idealist that likes a couple of things, and thinks they are cool, and you are trying to justify them to yourself ... you really have no idea where it came from and where it was going ... take a hint and go back and read about it ... Wyatt, Syd, Ayres, Allen, Ginsburg, Burroughs, Smith ... all connected via the same house where many of them lived and goofed around ... but you have no idea what the literature scene was about, do you?

Syd was a sort of Magic Theater for a while that went sour and died a nasty overdose dream! The others got scared when Syd went down the tubes, Robert went down the drain ... and the other two were out right gay and simply scoring -- for their next books and words. Even weirder is that no one even realizes where steely dan came from! Which kinda tells you how disconnected people really are from the "source"! Better go read the book ... might learn something about Canterbury and folks! While at it read about the Magic Theater too!

Edited by moshkito - March 26 2013 at 08:56

... none of the hits, none of the time ... you will, eventually, find your own art inside! Try it! www.pedrosena.com

Padraic, sadly I also find it very hard to warm to the first two Soft Machine albums, I simply can't stand Robert Wyatt's flat weezy vocals, even though all the playing is top notch. I think I much prefer the album `Fifth' onwards, so I must warm more to the fusion side of S.Machine.

But there's endless other knockout Caterbury bands we can talk more highly about, no doubt!

If I may suggest, the way to appreciate Robert Wyatt, is by stopping to expect "music" in any of its forms and designs, and it is done on purpose ... and it has been so since the famous ABC that he dropped on a live concert! It was his big number 1 finger to the commerciality and locking down of music and its concepts!

If you don't like that individuality and ability that so many of the Canterbury folks play and enjoy goofing around with ... then, you are not a "Canterbury" fan, but an idealist that likes a couple of things, and thinks they are cool, and you are trying to justify them to yourself ... you really have no idea where it came from and where it was going ... take a hint and go back and read about it ... Wyatt, Syd, Ayres, Allen, Ginsburg, Burroughs, Smith ... all connected via the same house where many of them lived and goofed around ... but you have no idea what the literature scene was about, do you?

Syd was a sort of Magic Theater for a while that went sour and died a nasty overdose dream! The others got scared when Syd went down the tubes, Robert went down the drain ... and the other two were out right gay and simply scoring -- for their next books and words. Even weirder is that no one even realizes where steely dan came from! Which kinda tells you how disconnected people really are from the "source"! Better go read the book ... might learn something about Canterbury and folks! While at it read about the Magic Theater too!

Hang on a second, Moshkito, no need to attack me and start pointing the finger, accusing me of what I do and don't know. All I ever said was that I don't like Robert Wyatt's pained flat VOICE, mainly on those first two Soft Machine albums. I've always preferred him for his musical ability than his voice, though I know plenty of others find his vocals hugely charming and charismatic, full of character.

As for for your accusations that I like `Canterbury' because I think it's `cool' to do so, well that's bulls**t on a stick, because I've never been under the delusions that ANY sort of prog is `cool', nor could I care if it were to be labelled that way or not.

Canterbury and prog have been a twenty year love for me through the variety, musicianship and passion of it's endless players and personalities.

As for for your accusations that I like `Canterbury' because I think it's `cool' to do so, well that's bulls**t on a stick, because I've never been under the delusions that ANY sort of prog is `cool', nor could I care if it were to be labelled that way or not.

Canterbury and prog have been a twenty year love for me through the variety, musicianship and passion of it's endless players and personalities.

No need to continue the discussion. Can you not see when you are being challenged to take a look at something, instead of reacting emotionally, to something that you did not understand?

This is not about me! It's about what you don't see. And I did not say you were blind, but I suggested that one make an effort to make better sense of that scene ... it's EVEN BETTER, IF YOU DO!

Edited by moshkito - March 26 2013 at 09:17

... none of the hits, none of the time ... you will, eventually, find your own art inside! Try it! www.pedrosena.com

Dave Stewart is also one of my favorite keyboardists. My favorite Canterbury bands are Caravan, Supersister, Hatfield and the North (Richard Sinclair has to have one of the best voices in music), Egg, National Health and Soft Machine. As for the Soft Machine discussion, I actually love their first three albums, and then though 4 and 5 were kind of dull, sort of jazz fusion by the numbers. With 6 and the addition of Karl Jenkins, the band took off again and released 4 great albums in a row. Although not as good, I also enjoyed Alive and Well in Paris and Land of Cockayne.

I can understand your anger at me, but what did the horse I rode in on ever do to you?

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